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emotional literacy

As children progress through school, they learn reading, writing and language skills in a daily 'literacy hour'.

Many schools now have IT suites where children can practice using a PC to develop 'computer literacy'.

Some schools have now begun to teach 'emotional literacy' to help children and young people to develop other important life skills.

But what is 'emotional literacy'?

Emotional literacy is:

"the ability to recognise, understand, handle and appropriately express emotions"
National Emotional Literacy Interest Group

Sometimes children and adults cannot name or express their emotions.

They may not have the vocabulary or the insight to identify what they are feeling, or where the feeling comes from.

Sometimes we need to learn what emotion we are experiencing - is it anger, sadness, happiness, frustration, fear? - and to allow ourselves to feel and understand them.

Emotional literacy enables people to take responsibility for understanding their personal emotions.

Emotional literacy strengthens a child's resilience to cope with life's 'risk factors', which may have a negative impact on well-being.

A direct benefit of emotional literacy is:

"emotionally literate young people are less likely to experience mental distress, and if they do develop it then they are less likely to suffer long term"
Mental Health Foundation 1998

In the same way that we can think of ourselves as being literate (able to read, write and speak well) or computer literate (able to use computers) in varying degrees, so too we all have degrees of emotional literacy.

The degree to which we are emotionally literate, reflects the degree to which we are able to recognize, understand, handle and appropriately express our emotions.

Just like literacy in language or computers, some of us are better at it than others, but it is something which all of us can learn and benefit from.

As we become more emotionally literate, we can:

• reflect on all our feelings

• be open to life even when there is uncertainty

• feel more empowered

• develop a greater belief in ourselves and our abilities

How do I become more emotionally literate?

Can you:

• name your feelings?

• give yourself permission to speak about your feelings safely?

• name the things that stress you out?

• name and do the things that make you happy?

For further information please see the emotional literacy section of our links page.

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